Monthly Archives: June 2015

You’ve read about my personal workflow techniques that incorporate various cloud service providers (like DropBox and OneDrive). Well . . . there’s another option for you to consider. It’s called younity. Rather than the pre-planning that’s required for the use of cloud service options, younity acts like what has been called a personal cloud service giving you access to all your files across all your devices. I was intrigued enough by the concept that I asked the younity folks to write a guest blog post for you.

Here’s what they wrote . . .

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Why younity? There are a multitude of options available to anyone in need of complete access to every document or file on their hard drive. The two most heavily-utilized options are portable hard drives (including thumb drives), and public server space provided by a “cloud” company like Dropbox, Box, OneDrive etc… While these options have worked for accessing all your files from any device, there is now one more worth mentioning. It’s called younity.

What does it do? The younity app allows users to access all of their files and stream any media, from any Mac or PC, right on their iOS (iPhone or iPad) device. This is possible after two simple steps are complete:

When these two steps are complete, younity begins organizing and streaming your content directly to your mobile device. What’s most important to note, especially for people who have secure files on their hard drive, is that younity does not store any of your content in a “shared cloud” like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, or on any cloud server for that matter. This software is a truly private, “personal cloud.” All younity stores on it’s servers is your email address.

If you are currently using a cloud service, like Dropbox, you can still make use of younity because the app provides access to all folders on your hard drive. From one interface, you will be able to open an important PDF, print it / download it / email it, stream a movie off your hard drive, listen to a song from any of your iTunes playlists, or post photos off your hard drive to social media. The younity app can be a utility for business, a productivity tool for work, and an entertainment console for fun.

A big problem with many cloud services is that you have to plan ahead and remember to upload things you want to access in the future. With younity, you never have to put anything in a shared cloud, email yourself important files, or sync your phone to your computer before you leave the house. All you have to do to access every file you want is install one free piece of software on your computer, and one free app on your iPhone or iPad.

What if my document-access needs are met? Even if you are someone who never leaves the house without their laptop, or has all of their files in an accessible cloud, you can still benefit from younity. With file access/print/share functionality aside, younity acts as a media player for all your playlists and videos. In a cloud storage account, these files appear unorganized and mostly unplayable. In younity, all of your media playlists appear the same way they do on your computer, and you can play them right on that device. If you don’t have any media on your computer, you can download younity to a spouses computer, and stream their content. Another way of gaining access to new content is to ask your friends to share a playlist or movie with you. This gives you the ability to listen or watch content stored on their computer from your iPhone or iPad.

So, what doesn’t younity do? younity is not a source for internet radio, nor is it a place to search through crowd-sourced media. It’s your private cloud to access your files, or others you’ve selectively shared with. And like most other apps, you need a data connection for younity to be able to stream your content. You will also need to make sure the computer you are accessing files from is powered on.

Lastly, it’s difficult to describe younity as just an “app.” Instead think of younity as the tool for connecting you to your content. Consider this when you start using it, and you will be very happy with the software.